Hollandmey, Broch site

You'll find nothing but a circular depression in the moorland near Thurso, and that's precisely what makes Hollandmey worth seeking out. This is a Pictish broch - one of Scotland's most mysterious Iron Age structures - reduced now to its earthwork foundations after nearly two thousand years of Highland weather.

What you're actually looking at is the flattened remains of a stone tower, probably standing around 40 feet high when it was properly built. The concentric rings mark where the outer and inner walls once stood, and if you're any good at visualising ruins, you can make out the entrance passage and internal chambers. Archaeology students and anyone serious about Pictish settlement patterns will find it genuinely compelling. For everyone else, it's a fairly subtle landscape feature - the kind of thing you either find mesmerising or mildly underwhelming depending on your tolerance for standing in a field looking at bumps.

It's free to visit and accessible year-round, though the moorland gets properly windswept in winter. Allow twenty minutes unless you're into detailed photography or want to spend time sketching the ground plan. The real value comes from combining it with other broch sites across the far north - this is archaeological tourism at its most serious.

If you're based at Little Croft Highlands campsite nearby, this works well as a morning detour before heading into Thurso itself. Don't expect facilities or a visitor centre - just you, the wind, and some very old stones buried in the earth.